Chapters During the galaxy wide operation known as the Second Great Crusade, it was decided that the Chapter Masters, and by extension the loyalist Primarchs that had been found, would all convene on Terra in order to better coordinate with each other and the High Lords. And most of the time, that was exactly what happened. Currently however, Zakis Randi of the Knights Inductor, backed by Lias Issodon of the Raptors and Tu'Shan of the Salamanders, was currently having an extremely heated debate with Riesiges Arschloch of the Marines Malevolent. To his credit, he would still be winning even without the backup.
"And I don't suppose it ever crossed the mind of the Exterminatus-happy captain of your Battle Barge to even communicate their intent to commence bombardment?" Yelled Zakis. "They might have been able to escape the blast radius if you had bothered to change frequencies."
To his credit, Riesiges didn't flinch, much. "The threat of Chaos gaining access to the Webway was too great, we needed to act with speed. Surely your Master of Ordinance wouldn't take off..."
He was cut off by Zakis grabbing the collar of his armor and pulling him in so that they were face-to-face, "If you ever so much as suggest that Garven, or any of my Chapter, would fire upon one of their Brothers unless there were no other option, I will personally take you to the challenge ring, turn you into pulp, and give what's left of you to the Angry Marines," he said, barely keeping his rage in check.
Riesiges held Zakis' gaze for as long as he could, a whole 4.7 seconds, before averting his gaze. Lias decided to take over, if only to preserve the decree that no blood was to be shed in the council chamber. "If your Marines had bothered to keep up-to-date with the battlefield reports, you would have learned that they had managed to eliminate the entire Chaos host mere minutes before the order to fire was given, and without a single casualty I might add, making it completely unnecessary as well as borderline treason."
In an effort to avoid having to look at either of them, Riesiges' gaze turned upon Tu'Shan, and immediately learned one of the universe's great truths; the only thing scarier than an Astares Chapter Master looking upon you with righteous indignation in his eyes, was when said eyes are red and glowing like hot coals. Tu'Shan's two cents was a mere 5 words, but they somehow managed to be the most terrifying of them all. "Vulkan shall hear of this," was all he said before Zakis dropped Riesiges and they walked away, leaving the waste recyclers of Reisiges' Power Armor working overtime.
As Zakis took a few deep breaths to calm down, Lias couldn't help but whistle. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought your Gene Seed was altered so you wouldn't get the Angry Marines' rage?"
"What can I say," Zakis said as he manually instructed his armor to give him a small shot of tranquilizer, "everyone has their buttons."
"I cannot say I blame you," said Tu'Shan, "they're worse than Khornate Berzerkers if you ask me. I must admit though, I was expecting somewhat more, considering the brotherhood your Chapter shares."
"The only reason I didn't do more than I did was because Roland's last transmission indicated that they had managed to flee into the Webway," Zakis replied, "with luck, they're merely lost instead of dead."
"I'll drink to that," said Lias, "let's go find Logan, I hear he brought the good stuff."
Meanwhile on the outskirts of Canterlot, said Captain had reached the same conclusion of a certain Techmarine, and was currently enjoying the statue garden he had currently found himself in, as well as attempting to determine the culture of the planet that he, and hopefully the rest of his unit, had found themselves on. "Definitely a culture that reveres equines, wonder what the Space Wolves would be like if Leman Russ had landed here?" He muttered to himself. "The White Scars might enjoy visiting here as well, I must remember to bring it up the next time we deploy together."
His further musing was put on hold as he encountered something slightly unexpected, a small grayish-purple unicorn was looking at him, with a rather nervous looking expression. Before he could do anything however, it bolted. "Huh, must be a local variant, possibly its ancestors had some minor Chaos induced mutation on the colony ship?" He recalled that while some of the statues did possess the unicorn variant, some had wings, some neither, and a very small number had both. Before he could speculate on possibly meeting the other variants, he heard a voice speaking Low Gothic. "I don't know what you think you saw, but rest assured, their's no way that a monster could get this far into Canterlot undetected."
"What about Changelings?" replied the voice of a young girl.
"That's what the lanterns are for, so they can..." the voice trailed off as its owner and Roland laid eyes on each other. It was a white Unicorn, Roland silently congratulated himself on remembering the old term for that particular legendary creature, dressed in gold ceremonial-looking armor, with a spear floating in an aura that matched the one around his horn at his side. "Freeze!" the guard, for what else could it be, said as he extended his spear towards Roland.
Roland considered his options, while the guard's armor clearly indicated that this was a Feudal World in terms of tech-level, the clear use of psychic power was a potentially major wrinkle, especially given the fact the little one's lack of reaction meant it was probably as widespread as it was on pre-Heresy Prospero. Also, while the armor's form over function aesthetic clearly screamed 'ceremonial guard', the fact that he only hesitated for a few seconds spoke highly of his training. All of this was compounded by the fact that this was obviously a Xeno World, and cooperating with the locals was the only theoretical way to get back home. So, he did the only logical thing he could think of, he slowly raised his hands. As the guard psychically removed all of his equipment, even his bolt pistol, which he was hoping they wouldn't recognize as a weapon, but it looked like they were of the 'remove anything that might be a weapon' school of thought, the little filly looked up at the guard and said, "Told ya so." Roland chuckled a little, he couldn't help it, it was just too cute.
Tormen looked over his Predator Vaeris, with the camo netting removed, he could see the damage that it had received. The thick armor had protected the internals from the rough landing, and the kilometer long furrow into the ground could testify just how rough, but one of the treads had popped completely off, basically leaving it as a glorified turret until repairs could be made. His Mechanicus training may have been limited to operation and basic repairs, but he could tell its machine spirit was not happy. He turned to the radio officer, "Tell me you've got something?"
"Nothing," he replied, "I'm not even picking up civilian channels."
Tormen smacked his fist into a nearby tree, as much as he was worried about being outside of communication of the Imperium, he was more concerned about the lack of comms from the rest of the unit. Further griping was curtailed by the sound of growling from nearby. Turning to look, he saw a pack of wolves, that were made of wood. Sighing, he pulled out the pair of Bolt Pistols he'd grabbed from the Predator's locker, "One of Nurgle's experiments perhaps?"
"Too bad the Lumbermarines aren't here huh?" said the driver as he revved up a chainsword. A brief chuckle echoed through the crew before the beasts charged, the Knights Inductor proving that even their tank crews could do the Emperor's work on foot.
Fieri looked out at the city he and his squad had been dumped near. He silently thanked the Emperor that his squad had managed to stick together, and that they hadn't lost any of their gear. His concerns now consisted of getting information, and it looked like entering the city was a non-option. Since it appears that they had landed on a planet of equineesque xenos, just walking in wouldn't be a wise course of action. And given that said city was composed entirely of crystal, even if they were Silent Hand veterans they wouldn't last 5 minutes without being spotted. He was already feeling antsy due to the fact that their armor was painted with urban camo in an arctic environment.
The unit's Apothecary, Irae Sanitatem, walked up to him. "The boys are getting nervous, and I can't say I blame them. Any ideas on what the plan is?"
"We must know our surroundings before we can find our path," Fieri replied, "we need more intel. Any luck getting in contact with... anyone?"
Irae shook his head, "Nothing but background static."
Any further discussion was curtailed by a scream. Thoughts of stealth flew from the minds of every marine present as training kicked in, 'the safety of civilians is priority #1'. They ran towards the scream, to find a mare, badly wounded, surrounded by a pack of wolves whose pelts seemed made of ice. "Light 'em up!" yelled Fieri as most of the squad drew their riot shields and bolt pistols, forming a defensive perimeter around the mare. The remaining 2 pulled out flamers, and proceeded to douse the wolves in flame. It worked better than they expected, as their targets started melting instead of being set aflame. It only took a few seconds of dousing before the other wolves ran. Irae started tending to the wounded mare, luckily the wounds weren't deep enough for his complete lack of knowledge of her physiology to hinder him too much, but the color of the snow around her was concerning.
"What next sir?" inquired the marine to Fieri's left in the defensive ring.
Fieri spared a glance back at the mare, "Find parts to make a stretcher, as soon as Irae's finished, we're heading for the city."
Nigrum peaked out of his camo-cloak. As a Silent Hand veteran, his capacities for stealth and sniping were comparable to that of a Vindicare assassin, although it was primarily the former that he was making use of now. While most would consider remaining undetected in the middle of a crowded city populated by xenos of a vastly different size and body-type would be the work of nothing less than a true master, the fact that no one was actively looking for him made Nigrum feel like he was in the middle of a training exercise. In addition, he noticed several marks carved into the buildings that told him that while they hadn't landed in close proximity, his squad had all landed in the same city. After marking his orders for them to gather information before convening in a disused clock tower that night, he had set up shop on a rooftop overlooking a school. Before too long, the bell rang, heralding the mass exodus of the students. One such student caught his eye however, as he could tell that they were being hounded by bullies. Nigrum frowned to himself, even before joining the Knights Inductor, he hated bullies. While bullies weren't anything worth breaking cover over, recruiting a local was an acceptable method of gaining intelligence. Nigrum grinned, he loved playing Scary Marine.
Babs ran from the bullies that were chasing her. Ever since she had founded the local CMC branch, Pennyworth and his stooges had made the life of her and her friends a living Tartarus. Today however, it appeared that he wasn't in the mood to leave it at school. Attempting to lose him, she ducked into an alley, only to find it had no exit, and Pennyworth had followed her in. 'Da-da-da, I'm dead.'
"Come on Baby Babs, you missed your weekly swirly appointment," said Pennyworth.
Babs backed into the wall, trying to put off her soggy fate for as long as she could. However, a deep voice suddenly pulled the attention of both of them.
"I believe you should stop doing that," it said.
Babs and Pennyworth both looked around for the source of the voice. "Who's joking around?" yelled Pennyworth.
"Didn't your mother tell you what happens to those who've been bad?" the voice said as a pair of glowing green eyes snapped into existence in a nearby shadow, causing both of the foals to fix their gaze on them. The eyes were soon joined by a massive figure in a mottled grey cloak that stepped out of the shadow.
"N-n-n-no way," stammered Pennyworth, "Grogar's just a myth."
"Do I look like a myth to you?" the figure said before placing its monstrous face directly in Pennyworth's. "Boo."
Pennyworth screamed and ran off as if his tail were on fire. Babs just closed her eyes and put her hooves over her head, remembering the little incident when she was in Ponyville. However, she soon risked a peak as, not only had the swift retribution she expected hadn't come, but she heard a sound she hadn't expected: gut-busting laughter.
The figure she was terrified of not 10 seconds ago was, while still admittedly still kinda intimidating, nowhere near that scary anymore. The cloak had parted to show that it concealed not a formless ball of shadow, but an armored figure of a similar body-type to a Minotaur. The scary face turned out to be a helmet, with what she thought were teeth looking more like an air mask. Of course the fact that it was holding his gut and trying to make sure it didn't fall off from laughing too hard also helped. In fact, the laugh was so contagious that she couldn't help chuckling a little herself.
"Feeling better are we?" Babs looked up to see the figure looking at her, trying to stifle the last of his laughter. "Sorry if I scared you, I hate bullies."
"I don't suppose you could come to class tomorrow?" Babs asked hopefully.
"And scare everyone? Probably not the best idea," the figure said. "I'm Nigrum."
"Babs."
Inanus scowled. There weren't many things that made him mad. Being captured while he was unconscious was, while embarrassing, surprisingly not one of them. Having his limbs restrained and being hung upside down? Annoying, but not rage-inducing. Being forced to listen to the monologue of a wannabe tyrant? Yes, that made him mad.
"Soon, I will penetrate the barriers around your mind, and you will be mine." Queen Chrysalis, as she had said her name at least 5 times by now, had been talking non-stop for the past 15 minutes. She was lucky he wasn't an Angry Marine, they use something similar to this as an Exterminatus-grade weapon. "Your defenses are admittedly the best I've ever encountered, but rest assured, you shall be mine soon enough. You shall help me to rule Equestria, and drain it for all the love my children and I can feed upon." Yeah... no, Inanus wasn't in the mood to become the pawn of a Slannesh-worshiper wannabe, Noise Marines gave him a headache. Besides, using mind control on a Blank? The only reason that he hadn't used his anti-psychic aura to fry her was the fact that his Null-Amp was stuck on suppress mode. Unfortunately there wasn't much chance of trying to trick her into flipping the toggle, as part of his bonds were covering it. After a while, she finally got tired of talking and left. Inanus examined his bonds, they were durable yes, but it was their elasticity that made escape all but impossible. All he had was his emergency beacon, and the knowledge that a Knight Inductor never abandons one of their brothers. For now though, a quick nap, and dreams of taking this 'Queen' to the authorities of this Equestria would be quite pleasant indeed.
Author's Note
Any of you who are familiar with the Marine Malevolent's lore and speak German(or have access to Google Translate), feel free to share why I chose that particular name for their Chapter Master. BTW, I'm not making that stuff about the Angry Marine-Bomb up, that was someone else's crazy idea.https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Angry_Marine-Bomb
Roland sat in the cell that the guard had placed him in. It was relatively comfortable, despite the fact that it was clearly designed for a much smaller occupant. Of course this was nothing new to him, he didn't just bring his own chair to the negotiation table because of how impressive it was. Speaking of which, that was what he planned to do. Admittedly, the position of prisoner wasn't his favored way of entering a negotiation, but he wasn't known as the man who stopped a dozen wars with but a few words for nothing. Of course, being no fool, he had to keep the possibility that he would need to break out an option. All of a sudden, he heard his Vox crackle to life.
"Captain Darren, please respond."
"This is Roland, glad to hear your voice Nisus."
"Same to you sir."
"Tell me, is there anyone else with you?"
"The Innovatus Squad, plus the Dreadnoughts. Do you require assistance?"
"Negative, I'm about to enter sensitive negotiations, you know how nervous Brother Virtuti can make the other party feel."
"...You are aware you're under arrest right?"
"Hardly my worst starting position. I'll be alright."
Nisus sighed, "Very well sir, anything you want us to do?"
"Get the unit back together, remain discreet for as long as reasonably viable."
"Understood, we'll contact you 1 hour after sunset, discomm."
Roland smiled, Nisus may be a bit low on command experience, but he'd get the job done. After launching a lazy ball of spit, he heard the door to the cell block open. Turning to look, he saw a trio of guards walk in. 'One of each variant, probably to take advantage of the unique benefits of each. I'm guessing the, pegasi I believe, have flight capabilities, the regular ones have the highest average strength perhaps?'
The lead guard, the unicorn, spoke, "The princess has deigned to accept you request for an audience."
"Wonderful," replied Roland, "is this happening now?"
"It will be some time before the princesses will see you. Princess Celestia is currently attending a formal event, and Princesses Luna and Twilight are currently at their personal estates."
"In that case, could I trouble you for some paint?" Roland said as he indicated the scratched-up paintwork of his armor, "I would like to look my best."
The guards looked at each other, "We'll see what we can do."
Roland smiled and nodded in thanks, as his gaze shifted to where his spitball had landed. The previously pristine iron bar now had a small hole in it. 'And some Chapters don't like using the Betcher's Gland, ha.'
Fluttershy didn't know what to make of the being that had landed in her garden. The closest she had ever seen to it was Iron Will, but this was even bigger. It was encased in grey armor, the only color being a bit of blue on the left shoulder, and some red on the right and the trim of both. Both of said shoulders had a symbol on them, the blue one having a set of scales, while the red one had a half-mechanical skull of a creature she had never seen before, unless it was of the creature who bore it, within a large cogwheel. But the scariest thing about it was definitely the quartet of metal arms that sprung from its back. The lower 2 had massive claws that made those of her little lobster friends look like sugar tongs, while the others ended in strange devices she had never seen before.
Then, it woke up.
Fluttershy was pretty sure that not even Rainbow Dash would be too upset at her hiding in this situation, probably. However, she didn't expect it to reply with a voice much softer than its size would suggest. Fluttershy mumbled a greeting in return, it was only polite after all. After a few seconds, she had to ask, "What are you?"
"Ferox Celsior, Techmarine 1st class of the Knights Inductor," he said as he got up. "If it's not too much trouble, might I ask the same of you?"
"Oh, I'm Fluttershy." Before her natural timidity could create an awkward silence, a massive rumbling caused her to hide again.
Ferox turned to the source of the sound. "What have they done to you?" he said, in a tone that reminded Fluttershy of her own when she first saw an injured animal. However, what crashed through the trees was no animal, but what looked like a massive armored chariot that propelled itself. However, it was incredibly roughed up, smoke pouring out of several places, and a large long bit on top cracked and sparking.
After clearing the trees, it came to a stop. A hatch on the top opened to reveal a figure similar to Ferox, except without the arms coming out of his back. "Brother Ferox, it's good to see you," the figure said as he leaped down and strode towards Ferox, only for Ferox to whack him upside the head before walking towards the vehicle. "I suppose I deserved that."
"Yes, you did," Ferox said before placing one hand one its hull. "At least Innovation tells me that these wounds were gained honorably, even if it's just as mad as I am that you fired the main gun without checking it. Seriously, the hurricane bolters were in good condition."
"Didn't want to take the chance," the new figure said, rubbing his head, "seriously, we were attacked by wolves made out of wood, actual walking fucking wood, that we shredded with hand weapons. Then, the pieces all combined into one massive wolf. I had to make sure it wouldn't do that again, and you know how much oomph the Grav-Cannon packs." Ferox proceeded to grumble as he used his claw arms to lift the vehicle so he could inspect the underside, startling the few others who had exited it. One of them was the same size, but the other 4 were quite a bit smaller, and had armor that didn't cover nearly as much. All of them moved to assist with the inspection and repairs, speaking comforting words to it like Fluttershy would to one of her patients. All except for the one who Ferox had reprimanded, who was wisely staying out of the way; and another who wore a hooded robe under his armor instead of the jumpsuit of his fellows, who was fiddling with something that wouldn't look too out of place in Vinyl Scratch's setup, particularly the headset he was holding to his ear. Eventually, the figure's attention wandered over to Fluttershy, causing her to shrink back behind the bush she was using for cover. "Who's the pony?"
"One of the locals Tormen," Ferox said as he used his gauntleted fist to bend a piece of armor plating into proper position, "and rather shy from what I could tell, so none of your usual shenanigans."
As Fluttershy considered getting some of her friends to help, the robed figure stood up suddenly, "Sir, I have Brother Conatus on the Vox."
Sergeant Fieri lead his squad at a brisk pace towards the city gates. The pony they had rescued was being carried by two Battle Brothers on a stretcher made of their Riot Shield, the branches of an evergreen they had found nearby, and held together by some of Irae's wound sealant. Irae was running alongside, keeping an eye on her vitals via medical auspex. Of course he had no idea what was considered normal for her race, but he was one of the best Apothecaries around, he'd make do. Of course, the moment they approached, they were stopped by a pair of guards. "Medical emergency," Fieri said as he indicated the injured mare, holding the confusion he had that the guards had crystalline coats for later.
The guards looked at each other before heading into the city at a brisk trot, Fieri and his squad close behind. As they moved through the city, most of the ponies in the street gave them a wide birth, although more then a few remained to watch them. The city was even more sparkly than its inhabitants, there wasn't a single building that wasn't made of crystal. Fieri went to order his squad to polarize their helmets' veiwports, only to find that they already had. He allowed himself a moment to be proud of their initiative before turning his attention back on their guides.
After about 15 minutes, they arrived at a rather large building that they assumed was a hospital. Upon entering, the two Marines transferred their passenger onto a waiting gurney, that the guards had radioed ahead for. Irae was rattling off her condition to a waiting doctor with a lot of technical terms. Fieri tuned that out, he stayed Tac-Marine for a reason. Instead he tuned back in to the local channels on his vox. Most of it was civilian entertainment broadcasts, he could even pick up a few kids playing with rudimentary voxes. However, he couldn't help but be concerned that he could pick up a few military bands. True, all of it was patrols and guard stations reporting in, but it wasn't even protected with basic encryption.
Hearing the door open behind him, he turned to see several more guards enter, lead by a massive(by their standards) red stallion that looked to be in charge. "I assume that you're the ones that the border guards reported bringing in that mare?"
"We are," Fieri replied, bringing his fist to his chest in salute, "Sergeant Fieri Clipeum, Knights Inductor 3rd Company, 5th Tactical Squad."
"Lieutenant Rock Steady, Heavy Platoon. I'm going to have you to come with me, the Commander in Chief would like to ask you a few questions."
Fieri was about to reply before noticing that Irae was currently accompanying his patient to the operating room. "We're gonna have to wait a while."
Inanus was rocking slowly back and forth in his cocoon. His original idea to get it caught on a sharp outcropping in order to rip it was thwarted by the fact that there weren't any, so now he was just doing it to pass the time. Soon however, he heard something burrowing underneath him. Sure enough, after a minute, a dark red spider the size of a bulldog tunneled up from the ground underneath him.
"Greetings little one," said Inanus, "feel free to stay, unless your here to try to monologue me to death, that position's already been filled."
The spider chirped before skittering up to his cocoon and started to eat it.
Inanus couldn't help but chuckle, "Cute little bugger. Hey, would you mind freeing up one of my arms while you're up there?"
While it gave no outward indication of hearing him, its feasting eventually lead it to clear away the gunk around his left arm. Inanus shook off a few bits that were clinging to him before pulling out his plasma pistol. Turning to its lowest setting, he turned it to the strand of hardened goop holding his cocoon to the ceiling. After a few seconds, it melted enough to snap, dropping him and his new friend onto the ground. Inanus then turned it towards the rest of his prison, taking care to avoid his new friend who was still happily munching away.
"Can't believe she didn't take you away," he said before holstering it, "must not have recognized it as a weapon." He walked towards his sword which was secured to the wall with more of that goop and pulled it free. He heard a chirp, and turned to see that the spider had crawled onto his power pack to get at some of the goop on his collar. "Hope the captain doesn't mind you tagging along," he said as he pulled the goop away from his mode toggle and handed it to the spider, who chewed on it gleefully. "Think I'll call you... Sapper."
Just then, the sound of hoofsteps approaching announced the arrival of Chrysalis. "Alright my pet, it's time to continue... how did you escape!?!?"
"That's not really important," said Inanus as Sapper scurried out of sight, "what's really important, is that I finally get to shut you up." An unearthly chill permeated the room as Inanus switched his Amp to 'Enhance Mode', letting Chrysalis know that she had royally fucked with the wrong target.
No one could say that the Tech Priests of Mars and those of the Aprior Sector were on the best of terms. Mars creates new technology by searching for lost STCs, Aprior does it by actually trying new things and stealing ideas from Xenos technology. Mars calls them Hereteks, Aprior just smirks and points to the fact that the Emperor himself ordered all plasma weapons to be replaced with Aprior pattern Mk 40s. And when a fucking Primarch asks them for a custom job? Well, lets just say that production on Mars was slowed down for a few days due to the sulking.
"I hope that this will be worth the wait," said Jaghatai Khan, Primarch of the White Scars, "I haven't so much as seen one of these things in 10,000 years."
"You won't be disappointed," said Maestro Mechanicus Severus Gajet of the Knights Inductor, "now come quickly, her machine spirit is very impatient."
Jaghatai frowned slightly, "Her?"
"All things have genders, why wouldn't a spirit?" asked Gajet as they approached a workshop. "Here we are, she's been waiting for you, and you for her I imagine."
Jaghatai whistled as Gajet opened the door, "You imagine, correctly."
What awaited them was what at first glance looked like a Primarch-sized bike with a ramming grill, but the lack of wheels and addition of two jet turbines at the front revealed its true nature as a Jet Bike.
"Allow me to present Celeritas Novum, Lord Khan. If you wish, I could show you her features?"
"Please," Jaghatai replied as he gently twisted the throttle.
"Of course. Celeritas was outfitted with a specific form of combat in mind: charge a squad of infantry, mow them down like wheat, and chase down the survivors."
"You know me well then," said Jaghatai, "I assume that her ramming grill will handle the brunt of that?"
"Her power grill, and these power blades." Gajet pressed a button on the bike's dash, causing a pair of large blades to extend outwards, positioned at the perfect height to cleave an Ork in two at the waist, or decapitate a normal human. "In addition, see these ports here?"
Jaghatai looked at the line of holes at the base of the bike, "They for the exhaust?"
Gajet shook his head, "Flamers, please keep your feet away from them at all times."
Jaghatai's eyes widened, "This thing should be a beast in close quarters, I hope I've got some range to match."
Gajet placed his hand on the trio of gun barrels poking out of the hood, "Two Multi-Meltas directly powered by the engine for increased range to clear any obstacles from your path that you can't run over, and a MkII Gravetic Mass Driver for those special occasions. For defense we've integrated a pair of Iron Halos, one in the windshield and one on the seat-back, and also included a pair of large storage containers and integrated holsters for one rife-sized and two pistol-sized weapons for those unfortunate times when you need to dismount."
Jaghatai mounted Celeritas and nodded in approval, "I originally came to your chapter because you were the only place to get a jet bike period, but after seeing this, I think I'd come here if jet bikes were as commonplace as the were pre-heresy."
Gajet bowed his head slightly, "You honor us. One quick word of warning though?"
"She isn't going to blow up if at the drop of a hat or anything like that right?"
"Of course not," said Gajet, mildly offended, "it's just that machine spirits that hail from Aprior have a tendency to dislike the various rituals of the Cult Mechanicus, and her dislike of wasting time takes that to an extreme. During the testing phase, a brother from your home chapter who was assisting us foolishly started to speak the Litany of Ignition, and she shot out from under him before he was half-finished. In short, she's a warrior, not an altar, and should be treated as such."
"That shouldn't be a problem," said Jaghatai. "By the way, I heard what happened on Azymorum, I'm sorry."
"Bah, my apprentice Ferox is with them, I know he's fine, so they're fine as well. Their armors have dutiful spirits, they'll keep their wearers safe."
In the land of Equestria, one of said spirits was a bit miffed since its wearer was in a situation where it couldn't help, again. At least Darren had painted him in the chapter's formal colors, it always liked bearing them in non-combat situations.
Roland himself was doing his pre-negotiation mental warm ups. He had managed to determine quite a bit about their culture based on his observations, as well as the data Nisus had sent him. They appeared to be somewhat similar to the Aprior sector in a way: peaceful, friendly to their neighbors regardless of race (the actual griffon, not the tank, he had seen outside his cell window had been quite the surprise), but if you pushed them too hard... well lets just say the training he observed in the guard that arrested him made significantly more sense.
While he was uncertain as to why the princesses had been delayed, he took the opportunity to look around. The hall he was in was apparently some form of royal audience chamber. Along the walls were stain-glass windows that were stylized depictions of various events, although he couldn't be sure if they were true or not. After a while they were replaced by windows that more random, that were clearly placeholders for future events. The two most recent ones depicted a clock whose face resembled a map of the world being held up by both a brown regular pony and a purple winged and horned version of the ponies, he made a mental note to find out exactly what they were called, and a large group of youths of multiple races in front of a crest that consisted of a red shield with a young pony in yellow with a cape prancing around, standing over a defeated looking adult unicorn with a shattered dagger next to him, perhaps it depicted a thwarted assassination attempt? If mere children could accomplish such a feat, he found himself both wanting to meet them, and slightly dreading actually doing so.
His attention was diverted when he heard a door open. "Presenting their Highnesses, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight Sparkle," a courtier called out. Roland internally whistled as he saw them come in, at least his wish to see the version with both wings and horn came true, although he didn't expect to see three.
The first was a large white one, about as tall as an unaugmented human not including the horn. Her mane and tail were an ethereal blend of blue green and pink, that waved on a wind that nothing else could feel. The second was a blue so dark so dark he thought it was royal purple for a few seconds, and slightly smaller than the first. Her mane also waved on its own, but it looked like someone had cut a patch out of the night sky and glued it to her head. The third looked the most unimpressive of the three, about the size of a regular pony and a mane that behaved like actual hair. She was also surrounded by a nebula of paper and writing material in her psychic grip, and a look in her eyes that reminded him of that time the Mechanicus got a hold of an intact Dark Eldar Venom. Another look confirmed her to be the same pony as the one in the clock window, possibly the head of the local Cult Mechanicus equivalent?
"Greetings, I am Princess Celestia," said the white one, "might I ask who you are?"
"Roland Darren, 3rd Company Captain and Master of the Deal of the Adeptus Astartes Chapter Knights Inductor, of the Imperium of Man," Roland said with a half-bow, "a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
The purple princess apparently couldn't hold back her inquisitive nature any longer. "What's the Imperium? And the Adeptus Astartes? How did you get here?"
"That may take a while," Roland chuckled. 'Definitely a Mechanicus equivalent.'
Meanwhile, a similar conversation was happening in the Crystal Empire, albeit without the barrage of questions. Fieri was currently providing an overview of the Imperium for Princess Cadance and Shining Armor as well as the Galaxy at large. Irae had elected to remain at the hospital, the rate at which he learned pony physiology was mind-boggling to everyone except his battle-brothers, but they welcomed his help none the less. The other members of his squad were standing by on the off chance that they were needed.
"I must admit, this Imperium sounds quite horrible," said Cadance.
"I have to agree with you ma'am," Fieri replied, "in all my years this planet is the only thing outside the Aprior Sector that I've seen that I'd be proud to call home."
"I assume that you'll be trying to get home," said Shining Armor, "whether or not you're successful, it appears that our place in the universe is no longer as simple as we would wish."
"Your lucky that is was us who made first contact, if you had encountered the Ordos Xenos or the Black Templars," said Fieri, shuddering at the thought of a certain Inquisitor Headsmash the Exterminatus-Happy as the Knights Inductor called him. "Anyway," Fieri said trying to change the subject, "I told you about the Imperium, perhaps you could tell me a few things about your society?"
"I suppose that's fair," said Cadance, "how about we start with when our ancestors turned our planet into a starship?"
Fieri's eyebrow raised, this was going to be quite interesting.
Fluttershy walked through town towards Twilight's library. Normally it would be a relatively stress-free experience, but her companion was drawing a lot of attention. Luckily it wasn't one of the Astartes, as she had learned the larger ones were called, but the robed one. Luckily most of the stares were directed to him and not her, although there was enough residual attention to make her uncomfortable. They had chatted a little on the way to town, before the population density caused her to clam up. While Fluttershy had never heard of the rank of 'Librarian', in a military sense anyway, Mr. Citro Veturius was rather nice.
After a few minutes, they arrived at Twilight's home. While she considered passing the buck to be rude, Fluttershy knew that this was something Twilight was infinitely more qualified to handle. Besides, Twilight and Mr Veturius were both librarians, they might get along. Knocking on the door, she was surprised, as usual, when one of her maids opened the door instead of her or Spike. "Hello Snowcap," at least Fluttershy thought it was Snowcap, "could I maybe talk to Twilight please?"
"Sorry, but the princess went to Canterlot, she should be back tomorrow though," Snowcap replied.
"Oh, okay," Fluttershy said as Citro walked in and started looking at the books. Fluttershy really hoped that Twilight wasn't delayed.
Inanus walked through the desert, Chrysalis dragged behind him on a sled made of scavenged materials from her base and rope from his kit, the rest of said rope was used to secure her, mostly around her mouth. He was a bit surprised that he didn't run into anything else considering the size of the complex he had escaped from. Sapper was standing guard over Chrysalis, happily munching on a bit of goop. Luckily, he had managed to encounter a map room while looking for the way out that showed the location of a (relatively) nearby settlement. Of course Inanus had no idea whether or not said settlement would be friendly, but it was better than nothing.
After a couple of hours of walking, he arrived in an apple orchard that had a large strip running down the middle with no trees at all. 'Probably for carts,' he thought to himself as he navigated himself and his prisoner up the hill towards the town proper. While most Astartes would probably have an aneurysm at the sight of a village populated by xenos, Knights Inductor were significantly more flexible in that regard. After a few seconds of looking around, he noticed a solidly built building with bars for windows, most likely the jail. Before he entered, he noticed several posters mounted beside the door, and chuckled before tearing one down. He entered the building and slapped Chrysalis' wanted poster on the desk of who he assumed was the sheriff.
In response, the sheriff stole a glance at Chrysalis before reaching into his desk and pulling out some paperwork while sliding an inkwell and quill towards him.
Inanus inwardly sighed as he filled out the form, he was hoping for a more interesting reaction, walking through the desert was boring .
Author's Note
The first appearance of Inquisitor Headsmash
Roland Darren, Captain of the Knight Inductor's 3rd Company and Master of the Deal, looked upon his troops. He hated having to enter direct combat, preferring the battlefield of diplomacy, but it was out of his hands. In a maneuver that he privately considered planned by Tzeentch himself, dozens of planets in the Imperium simultaneously had outbreaks of Chaos, Chaos Marines, Daemons, the whole shebang. Every chapter of the Space Marines were called to action, as well as the small handful of Primarchs that the Emperor himself, while possessing the body of a Tarrasque, had managed to find. Unfortunately the emperor himself had temporarily left the Materium in order to be reborn in a less heretical form. The fact that these attacks occurred exactly one month after that event also smelled of 'Just as planned' to Captain Darren, but it was too late for such speculation. The 3rd company had been deployed to the agricultural world of Azymorum, along with the Raptor's 5th, the Marine Malevolent's 2nd, the Titan Legion Legio Astorum, and countless guardsmen.
In order to locate bases of operation in the sprawling farmland, they hit upon a simple yet effective strategy. The Knights Inductor and Raptors, being specialists in covert operations, split into scout groups in order to locate Chaos emplacements, command points, ritual sites, etc... Once located, they would call for the heavy hitters of the guard, Marines Malevolent, and Legio Astorum to hit them hard. Once the base was destroyed, the scout group would move on to find the next target.
So far, it was working, current projections indicated that they'd finish sweeping the major settlements by the end of the month. His plan to use the Astropaths aboard their vessels to locate remote encampments was also bearing fruit, albeit requiring a sweep to pinpoint their location. Exterminatus would not be the fate of this planet.
Of course, their latest find was also the most worrying. Chaos Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons were gathered around what appeared to be an ancient Webway Gate. If they managed to restore it, they'd be able to move troops from anywhere to anywhere, even holy Terra itself. As such, they had placed a priority call for support. The question was, would they strike now against an opponent that was twice their number, or wait for backup and risk them getting the gate online in the meantime? As such, he turned towards the Sergeants of each of the units in his group. "Well Brothers, what say you?"
Company Ancient Nisus Conatus adjusted the shaft of his banner in his grip as he considered his response, "They may have the numbers, but most of them are occupied on the Gate. We move quick, we should be able to take enough of them out before they notice to make it a fair fight."
Nigrum Inanus, Sargeant of the Silent Hand Veteran Squad spoke up next. "They look like they're channeling a lot of the Warp in their little project," he said before chambering a round in his massive sniper rifle, "we take out the ones leading the ritual, it should blow up in their faces quite nicely."
"We can follow that up with a salvo from the Vindicators," said Tormen Armis, commander of the tank detachment, "their's a nice building overlooking the Gate, we bring that down on top of them, we'll be in position to give the survivors the Emperor's Peace as soon as they dig themselves out."
"My squad can cover the perimeter to watch for anyone trying to get in or out," said Fieri Clipeum, Sergeant of the Tactical Marine squad, as he touched up the camo paint on his riot shield.
"Unfortunately that still leaves the question of the Sorcerers not involved in the ritual," said Ferox Celsior, Tech Marine and de-facto head of the Innovatus Squad. "The Thousand Sons have quite a few, and we don't have the firepower if they manage to summon a daemon."
"You forget, we're the Knights Inductor," said Darren as he turned towards his second-in-command, who was currently sharpening a rather plain looking sword, "we have a certain advantage in that department."
In response, he sheathed his blade, and flipped open a cover on his rather odd looking helmet, revealing a toggle switch.
Meanwhile, in the quaint little town of Ponyville, although given the fact that 2(or three depending on how you looked at it) of the princesses of the entire country had their personal residences there wouldn't be little much longer, one of said princesses was reading a very interesting book on prophecies. A little to the side was her adoptive daughter Nyx, reading a book of her own while encased in a cute little book fort. Twilight was glad that she was feeling alright, after everything that's happened recently. As if it wasn't enough that she was the reincarnation of Nightmare Moon, over the past year she had to deal with being in the middle of a dragon attack, almost getting killed by an all but incompetent secret society, and that nasty business with the Council of Celestial Stewards had all been very trying experiences for her. For now at least, she was getting the chance to be a (relatively) normal child, and that was all either of them could really hope for.
Just then, a stallion with an incredibly messy mane and a video camera walked in. "Morning Roller, the Cutecinera go alright?"
"Let's just say there are days when filming your experiments seems the safer option," Roller replied as he pulled a cupcake wrapper off of his head. Roller was head of the library's burgeoning film department, and had a side business filming private events. He was also the cinematographer behind a widely well-regarded documentary about the aforementioned dragon attack. "What ya got there boss?"
"Just a little prep-work," Twilight said as she spared a glance at Nyx, "you'd be surprised how often these things come true. Although, they can be incredibly confusing, listen to this. 'There will come a time when the true ruinous face of chaos will reveal itself, and the only defense will be half-heretic knights who bear the light of reason. And Equis will take its full place among the stars, and become a second beacon to light the way of the travelers'. Seriously, would it kill them to make sense? I can't tell if this is referring to Discord suffering a relapse, his brother coming to visit, or whatever this chaos thing might be. And half-heretic knights? Who are they supposed to be?"
"Don't look at me, I'm just the guy who shoots it when you save the world," Roller said as he put his camera away.
Meanwhile, Nyx, who couldn't help but overhear, felt something... odd, when she heard that prophecy. For some odd reason, she felt... comfort when she heard the bit about the knights. The shivers she felt when chaos was mentioned on the other hoof, that was perfectly rational to feel.
Laesaeque Mundi was pleased with his work. As an Exalted Sorcerer, he had been commanded by a Lord of Change sent by Tzeentch himself to take this Webway Gate, and by the Ruinous Powers, he had all but succeeded. Even if the servants of the damned corpse emperor were to show up, he had half a company's worth of Rubric Marines to hold them off while the Thrall Wizards completed their work. And once they were finished, a Silver Tower would transfer it to the Planet of the Sorcerers, and Laesaeque privately hoped that Magnus himself would deign to descend from his tower to inspect this prize. Truly, everything was going just as planned.
Then the heads of the Thrall-Champions started popping like overripe fruit, causing the unholy energies they were channeling to detonate like cyclonic torpedoes.
Laesaeque looked to see a trio of bulky Dreadnoughts of a type he was unfamiliar with, all wearing a strange net with pieces of rubble sewn into it like a cloak. They all had powerfists with built in guns, although the one in the lead had replaced one of them with an autocannon. Although it was the marine in front of them that had him worried. He had no idea why, he appeared to be nothing special, just a single marine with a sword and pistol, although the livery was strange to him, splotches of various shades of grey, although he could see a bit of blue on the pauldrons. Not wanting to take a chance, he called upon the power of the warp to launch a ball of flame at him, only for it to fizzle into nothingness an instant before hitting him. The remaining Thrall Wizards and the additional Sorcerers among them launched a salvo of psychic might, only for it too to fail utterly. Laesaeque then ordered the gather Rubric Marines to fire upon the Marine, only for the Dreadnoughts to generate a barrier to protect him. Before he could determine his next course of action, a rumbling to the side alerted him to a trio of Vindicators, also clad in that strange netting, just before they fired a salvo at a large building nearby, causing it to topple over onto them. Laesaeque could only mutter, "Not as planned", before being crushed by a piece of rubble the size of a Land Raider.
Roland smiled as the Innovatus and Tactical Squads mopped up before turning to his XO, "Sorry for having you play bait Inanus."
"It was the proper tactical decision," Inanus Vicit, the Silencer Primaris replied. He had long since restored his Null-Amp to suppress mode, which meant that his aura as a Blank didn't cause the normal feeling of dread in those in his immediate vicinity. Unfortunately, before they could talk further, a crackling sounded over the Vox.
"ASBS Candela to KI Strike Unit 2-7a, the M&Ms just launched an orbital bombardment at the location of the Webway Gate you reported, get out now if you haven't already."
"By the Throne, don't they know the meaning of holding back," Roland said as he considered his options. Even if they had brought Thunderhawks, there was no way they'd be able to get out before everything in a 5 mile radius exploded, and even less of a chance for the Bulwark Dreadnoughts to be able to protect them. Eventually, his eyes turned towards the Gate, which had been restored to basically working order mere seconds before the assault had begun. Wasting no time, he turned on his Vox, "All units, incoming bombardment, into the Gate now!"
Without hesitation, they all made for the gate, the Silent Hands only being first through by virtue of being in the middle of rigging it to blow. In about a minute, the entire unit had entered, Captain Darren being the last through. 'Hope the Eldar on the other side of this thing don't mind us popping in,' he thought to himself before the Cyclonic Torpedo impacted, obliterating the gate and causing the portion of the Webway on the other side to shatter, causing the Knights Inductor to be flung from its safety to the mercies of the Warp.
Ferrox stirred from unconsciousness before doing a quick diagnostic of his Power Armor. There weren't any major problems that he could determine, although he could tell that the Machine Spirit was both dizzy and grumpy after being shot-put through the Warp. He decided to do a quick observation of his surroundings to try and figure out where exactly he was. 'No airborne pathogens, so not the Garden of Nurgle. The only thing that I can see moving is that tree swaying in the wind, so probably not the Crystal Labyrinth. Ambient volume is pretty low, so I don't think this is the Palace of Slaanesh. Ground feels like grass, not soaked in blood, so not the Realm of Brass and Blood. Sky's nice and blue, so probably not anywhere else in the Warp either. I'm back in the Materium, nice to have something good happen for a change, damn Marines Malevolent.' As he pulled himself up into a sitting position, he heard a quiet 'meep' that he would have missed if not for the fact that one of the many perks of becoming an Astares was enhanced hearing. Turning to look, he noticed what for all intents and purposes appeared to be a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane, and without a doubt the cutest thing he had ever seen. "Greetings little one."
Ferrox expected many things, but for the Pegasus to mutter a quiet "Hello" in return wasn't one of them. He quietly scratched his helmet, silently reappraising his assumption that he was in the Materium.
